Laura Betti ( Trombetti; 1 May 1927 – 31 July 2004) was an Italian actress known particularly for her work with directors

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most ...

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

and

Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...

. She had a long friendship with Pasolini and made a documentary about him in 2001. Betti became famous for portraying bizarre, grotesque, eccentric, unstable or maniacal roles, like Regina in

's ''

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...

'', Anna the medium in '' Twitch of the Death Nerve'', Giovanna la pazza in ''

Woman Buried Alive ''Sepolta viva'' (internationally released as ''Woman Buried Alive'') is an Italian drama film directed by Aldo Lado. The film obtained a great commercial success and launched a short-living revival of "feuilleton films". It has a sequel, ''Il fig ...

'', hysterical Rita Zigai in '' Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina'', Therese in '' Private Vices, Public Virtues'', Emilia the servant in Pier Paolo Pasolini's '' Teorema'' for which she won the

Volpi Cup for Best Actress The Volpi Cup for Best Actress is an award presented by the Venice Film Festival. It is given by the festival jury in honor of an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance from the films in the competition slate. It is named in honor o ...

, and Mildred the protagonist's wife in Mario Bava's '' Hatchet for the Honeymoon''.

Early life

Born Laura Trombetti in

Casalecchio di Reno Casalecchio di Reno (Bolognese: ) is a town and '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. History Casalecchio's name is derived from ''Casaliculum'' ("collection of little houses"), and from the presence o ...

, near

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

, she grew up to be interested in singing. She first worked professionally in the arts as a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

and moved to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Film career

Betti made her film debut in

's '' La Dolce Vita'' (1960). In 1963, she became a close friend of the poet and movie director

. Under his direction, she proved a wonderful talent and played in seven of his films, including ''La ricotta'' (1963), '' Teorema'' (''Theorem'', 1968), his 1972 version of ''The Canterbury Tales,'' in which she played the Wife of Bath; and his controversial '' Salo'' (1975) ("120 Days of Sodom").Obituary: "Laura Betti"
BBC, 1 August 2004 In 1976, Betti portrayed Regina, a cruel and eroto-maniacal

fascist Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

's '' Novecento'' (''1900''). She also played Miss Blandish in his '' Last Tango in Paris'' (1972), though her single scene was deleted. In 1973 she dubbed the voice of the Devil for the Italian version of William Friedkin's ''

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 The Exorcist (novel), novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, ...

''.

From the 1960s, Betti dedicated much of her time to

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

and

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

. She became the muse for a number of leading political and literary figures in Italy and came to personify the revolutionary and

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

era of 1970s Italy. In 2001, she made a documentary about Pasolini, ''Pier Paolo Pasolini e la ragione di un sogno.'' She also donated her papers related to their long friendship along with more than 1000 volumes and many documents connected to Pasolini to the archives of the ''Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna'', thus creating the ''Centro Studi Archivio Pier Paolo Pasolini''. This ''Centro'', strongly wanted by Betti, owns also thousands of photograph and all the works of Pasolini: poetry, literature, cinema and journalism. After her death in 2004 her brother Sergio Trombetti has donated all the personal documents of her career to the ''Centro'' that has absorbed them under the name ''Fondo Laura Betti''.

Selected filmography

Discography

LP

* ''Laura Betti con l'orchestra di Piero Umiliani'' (Jolly LPJ 5020, 1960) * ''Laura Betti canta Kurt Weill 1900-1933'' (Ricordi SMRL 6031, 1963) * ''Laura Betti canta Kurt Weill 1933-1950'' (Ricordi SMRL 6032, 1963)

EP

* ''Laura Betti con Piero Umiliani e la sua orchestra''. La commedia è finita/La canzone del giramondo/La canzone del tempo/Una venere ottimista (RCA Italiana A72U0220, 1958) * ''Quattro canzoni con Laura Betti''. Amare vuol dire mentire/ I hate Rome/ Lucciola/ Satellite (Jolly EPJ 3000, 1960) * ''Laura Betti con l'orchestra di Piero Umiliani''. Quella cosa in Lombardia/Piero/Io son' una (Jolly EPJ 3004, 1960) * ''Laura Betti con l'orchestra di Piero Umiliani''. Macrì Teresa detta Pazzia/Valzer della toppa/Cocco di mamma (Jolly EPJ 3005, 1960) * ''Laura Betti con l'orchestra di Piero Umiliani''. Venere tascabile/Vera signora/E invece no (Jolly EPJ 3006, 1960) * ''Laura Betti dal film 'Cronache del '22' ''. Nel '22 sognavo già l'amore/Proprio oggi/Sulla strada che va a Reggio/La prima volta (Jolly EPJ3009, 1961) * ''Laura Betti N.1.'' Je me jette/La parade du suicide/Je hais Rome/La belle Léontine (Chansons d'Orphée 150019, 1962) * ''Laura Betti N.2.'' Je sais vivre/Piero/Maria le Tatuage/Une vraie dame (Chansons d'Orphée, 150021b, 1962) * ''Laura Betti e Paolo Poli''. Doppio EP. La bambinona/Guglielmino/La bella Leontine/Io Corpus Domini 1938/Mi butto/Donna bocca bella/Donna Lombarda/Orrenda madre/La Lisetta/La Ninetta/La Morettina/La Gigiotta (Carosello LC4001/2, 1964) *''Ordine e disordine''. Ai brigoli di Casalecchio/M'hai scocciata, Johnny/Monologo della buca/Solitudine/Lamento del nord (I dischi del sole DS 40, 1965)

Singles

* ''Les pantoufles à papa/L'attesa (Rca Italiana N0595, 1957) * ''Venere tascabile/Seguendo la flotta'' (Jolly J 20135, 1960) * ''Ballata dell'uomo ricco/Ballata del pover'uomo'' (Jolly J 20128, 1961) * ''E invece no/Solamente gli occhi'' (Jolly J 20136X45, 1961)

References

External links

* *
Il Manifesto Obituaries
{{DEFAULTSORT:Betti, Laura 1927 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Italian actresses Actors from Bologna Italian film actresses Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners Ciak d'oro winners